[Andrew_WOT]

your MG will sound like an OG with small differences (HD600 vs HD650)

Small difference?

 

[donlin]

A 1.2 mm difference in pad thickness is so small (less than 1/20 of an inch). The production tolerance is probably greater than that. How can you measure a squishy pad and cloth covering with that kind of accuracy?

 

[Ichos]

Sorry to jump in but I really don't understand.
May I ask? This whole conversation and post is to prove that the Focal Clear Mg will sound almost as the OG and vice versa if you exchange pads?
And the proof of this claim is the frequency response measurements of both headphones with the pads?

I am afraid that this is far from the truth. There is a lot more than frequency response and these two headphones don't sound alike. They are build from different materials and their sound signature or let me say character is totally different.
I owned the OG for a couple of years and now I have the Mg that I use in a regular basis and yes they don't sound alike. And I am not referring to frequency response alone.

So you can't make your Focal Clear OG to sound like the Mg if you swap pads and vice versa.

 

[cubemacplayer]

Small difference?

Oh.. really you wanna go that path.. you got what I meant I'm sure, as I took my words from Jude's Youtube review who compared what they were supposed to be.
The difference is small relatively ito the stock MG, it's supposed to have the same tune.

A 1.2 mm difference in pad thickness is so small (less than 1/20 of an inch). The production tolerance is probably greater than that. How can you measure a squishy pad and cloth covering with that kind of accuracy?

Sorry I was supposed to say 1.2cm, I will correct that. It's made of another material too.

Sorry to jump in but I really don't understand.
May I ask? This whole conversation and post is to prove that the Focal Clear Mg will sound almost as the OG and vice versa if you exchange pads?
And the proof of this claim is the frequency response measurements of both headphones with the pads?

I am afraid that this is far from the truth. There is a lot more than frequency response and these two headphones don't sound alike. They are build from different materials and their sound signature or let me say character is totally different.
I owned the OG for a couple of years and now I have the Mg that I use in a regular basis and yes they don't sound alike. And I am not referring to frequency response alone.

So you can't make your Focal Clear OG to sound like the Mg if you swap pads and vice versa.

The point is to say the have almost the same frequency response with minimal deviation with the same pads and not totally different responses as they do out of the box. They're much closer than different.
*AND if you pad swap and put thicker OG pads on your MG you'll have similar mids as I pointed out in ALL the graphs from 3 different sources.
All that downward shift from 2K up will go away.

 

[Ichos]

Oh.. really you wanna go that path.. you got what I meant I'm sure, as I took my words from Jude's Youtube review who compared what they were supposed to be.
The difference is small relatively ito the stock MG, it's supposed to have the same tune.


Sorry I was supposed to say 1.2cm, I will correct that. It's made of another material too.


The point is to say the have almost the same frequency response with minimal deviation with the same pads and not totally different responses as they do out of the box. They're much closer than different.
*AND if you pad swap and put thinner OG pads on your MG you'll have similar mids as I pointed out in ALL the graphs from 3 different sources.

I don't know.
Nonetheless, their tonal characteristics (not frequency response) are totally different.

 

[cubemacplayer]

I don't know.
Nonetheless, their tonal characteristics (not frequency response) are totally different.

Did you have the opportunity to swap pads between the two?

 

[Ichos]

Did you have the opportunity to swap pads between the two?

No.
Their tonal characteristics are irrelative to pads, not only for the headphones we are discussing but to everything else.
Their drivers are different, they don't sound the same.
Nothing to do with frequency response.

 

[cubemacplayer]

No.
Their tonal characteristics are irrelative to pads, not only for the headphones we are discussing but to everything else.
Their drivers are different, they don't sound the same.
Nothing to do with frequency response.

Yes I agree they always will sound different from one another due to the construction being different, of course. But you gotta agree with me, and with all the graphs, that changing pads on any Focal makes a huge difference in sound.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Sorry to say that, but unless you own both, this is just a silly extrapolation of some random internet data.
Unless alikeness you are referring to is the same as HD600 vs HD650, then yes, they all share similar traits, yet different enough.

 

[Ichos]

Yes I agree they always will sound different from one another due to the construction being different, of course. But you gotta agree with me, and with all the graphs, that changing pads on any Focal makes a huge difference in sound.

If I agree with you in one thing, is that changing pads will make a difference in the frequency response in every single headphone in the world.
Some will get affected more than the others, depending on the design.
As an example, changing the pads in the Empyrean from the stock to the Angled, results in a totally different frequency response, like buying a new headphone.
BUT the overall tonal characteristics of the Empyrean remain excaltly the same, with both pads, something that doesn't happen if you swap pads between the Mg and the OG.

 

[Resolve]

Oh.. really you wanna go that path.. you got what I meant I'm sure, as I took my words from Jude's Youtube review who compared what they were supposed to be.
The difference is small relatively ito the stock MG, it's supposed to have the same tune.

Crin's measurement here is due to an issue with a particular run of pads that seemingly coincided with the release of the Clear Mg and was not the intended FR. You could even see a physical difference, with that one run of pads being noticeably smaller. Subsequent pad batches were 'fixed' with the same thickness as the Clear OG pads. The difference in FR is subtle, but noticeable, and down to the rest of the acoustic behavior. I don't have them on me at the moment but this can be demonstrated by measuring two current units with pads from the same batch and swapping them the Mg to the OG. We noticed this as well with the Mg Pro.

 

[cubemacplayer]

Crin's measurement here is due to an issue with a particular run of pads that seemingly coincided with the release of the Clear Mg and was not the intended FR. You could even see a physical difference, with that one run of pads being noticeably smaller. Subsequent pad batches were 'fixed' with the same thickness as the Clear OG pads. The difference in FR is subtle, but noticeable, and down to the rest of the acoustic behavior. I don't have them on me at the moment but this can be demonstrated by measuring two current units with pads from the same batch and swapping them the Mg to the OG. We noticed this as well with the Mg Pro.

Thanks for clarifying.
In my case, I'm 100% sure the pads of my MG, from 2022, are thinner than the Focal Clear OG ones, and different materials too, it's stiffer and not so plush. I particularly remember when I auditioned the OG the feel of the pads. How luxurious they felt, something my pad, for being stiffer and not plush, don't have the same feeling.

According to Crinacle measurements, I can see that heavy downards dip from 1.5k up with this stiffer pad on the MG - which curiously has a similar result to all Dekoni pads, that you extensively measured, because all dekonis are thinner too (then the material of course comes into play changing the very low and highs).

So, the question is, what's the frequency response intended for the Focal Clear MG? Drown 1.5k up like that or similar as Jude's measurements from the very early start?

Thank you Resolve I would really appreciate you doing more tests on this.

 

[cubemacplayer]

Sorry to say that, but unless you own both, this is just a silly extrapolation of some random internet data.
Unless alikeness you are referring to is the same as HD600 vs HD650, then yes, they all share similar traits, yet different enough.

Difference in pad thickness in the same headphone:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/focal-clear-mg-review-measurements.956702/post-16308805

Sorry to quote so late, I'm reading pass things about the Clear MG, did you try with the OG pads? If so, how was it? Cheers.

The OG Clear pads with the MG is great. It's how I listened to the MG's and never looked back.

User after adding OG pads to MG

how's the difference comparing to the origninal pad?

Punchier mid bass, clearer mids, and reduced the peak in the high treble. The pads are also not as stiff as the MG pads, and it really reduces the clamping force
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/focal-clear-mg-review-measurements.956702/post-17170057

This discussion and thinking did not start today. Please I appreciate if you have any meaninful insight, thank you.

*edit adding another quote

 

[Prism24]

Breaks my heart that I had to return the pair I tried out because they were so uncomfortable to wear, somehow causing both a hotspot while being super clampy. The sound they produced was phenomenal though….

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Difference in pad thickness in the same headphone:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/focal-clear-mg-review-measurements.956702/post-16308805


The OG Clear pads with the MG is great. It's how I listened to the MG's and never looked back.

User after adding OG pads to MG

Punchier mid bass, clearer mids, and reduced the peak in the high treble. The pads are also not as stiff as the MG pads, and it really reduces the clamping force
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/focal-clear-mg-review-measurements.956702/post-17170057

This discussion and thinking did not start today. Please I appreciate if you have any meaninful insight, thank you.

*edit adding another quote

You are missing the point that was reiterated by few posters already. Different pads change MG FQ (I am using Dekoni Stellia Ltd myself), but it does not turn MG into OG. Your posts are implying that the difference is only pads, when it is clearly not.